Thursday, September 28, 2006

It's one of my latest hand painted gaiwan that found its way in my selection.I've introduced its maker on September 22nd (in French). I realized afterwards that the small pictures can't capture the beauty of the colors and the light touch of the brush. (Best is to click on the pictures to increase their size). That's why I took this close up in today's natural light. Enjoy!

Monday, September 25, 2006

I've often made the point that water is a very important part of your tea. You just can't make good tea with bad tasting/smelling water. But using good cold water is not enough, as you must warm it so that it remains good. I remember I used to cook my tap water with a stainless steel kettle over my gas heater in my kitchen until I learned gongfu cha with Teaparker. That was all wrong (and I was always disappointed by the tea I made with such water.)

So, how do I boil my water now?

First, I boil it slowly. I use an electric induction heater and use the low to medium speed to bring the water to a slight boil (the well known crab eyes: when air bubbles the size of crab eyes appear in the water). By boiling the water slowly, it's more easy to catch this moment. If you pass it, the water will loose its oxygen and become 'old'.

Second, I use this Japanese iron cast tetsubin pot. The important thing about it is that there is no enamel or glazing inside.Iron, like clay, is a little bit porous. This allows the water to 'breath' and remain young longer. Iron is also quite heavy and heat conductive. This means that the temperature remains hot for quite a long time.

Such an iron pot has another positive characteristic that most people are afraid of: it rusts! See the close up below.

When you use a tetsubin, you can't let the water sit still for several hours (otherwise the water will become brown). You have to use it in a timely fashion and dry it (with heat) at the end of your gongfu cha. Some rust will still appear over time, but the tiny little quantity of iron that dissolves into the water will actually be good for the taste of tea and for your health (especially since you can't eat spinach anymore nowadays!).

I paid over 100 USD for it. Nevertheless, I found that this an investment that pays off as I use it every day, for every tea.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

I bought this bar of tea soap at last week's Taipei Tea Expo 2006. I've tried it today and can report that it works well. It's a little bit a paradox: the soap smells very strongly, but the hands come out with very little of that smell. I think I will use this soap to wash my hands before each tme I brew tea. As you may remember if you read me 'religiously' (as somebody just emailed me!), I recommend that you touch the tea leaves before you brew them. This happens naturally if you don't use a wooden spoon: you first put some leaves in your hand and then in the teapot/gaiwan. Some people say it's very bad to touch leaves, because tea is so sensitive and will pick your odors. And I must say they have a point. That's why your hands should be clean and you shouldn't wear strong perfume. But if you do this, why shouldn't the tea come in contact with you? The tea is going to give you it's essence, you can also give it some of yourself before the fusion of tea and you happens in your body. And the best leaves have been picked up by hand anyway.

This soap then reminded me of this 'tea seed powder'. This is also a soap, but traditionnally used for washing the dishes, before the days of P&G. Nowadays it's still used for washing the dishes, but it's marketed for those emphasizing natural and environment friendly products. I also found it works well to wash my hands before making tea. (For the dishes it's OK, but not as powerful as the modern stuff. I like it for my wok and for very dirty pots, but not for the fine touch.)

These 2 soaps are not directly made with tea then. But with the tea seed, the seed that grows from the tea flower:It's with this seed that tea farmers press the very rich tea oil (bottle left) and then this oil is used to make the soap bar (right). To make the powder (middle), they just grind the tea seed.Tea has many other derivatives. I recently saw my local supermarket selling bed pillows filled with brewed and dried again tea leaves! (Such pillows are cooler for the summer).This is something you can do yourself: sun dry the leaves instead of throwing them away. Once you have enough of them you can stuff them in a pillow. Maybe some puerh fans in this community should do this with puerh. I'm sure such a pillow would motivate them to go to bed earlier and have nice dreams instead of blogging into the late hours of the night! (Hey! Maybe I should try it myself!)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Thanks for visiting my tea blog. A few readers have suggested that I make a more complete presentation of myself, this blog and what it can offer Chinese tea fans around the world. So let's get started:

My name is Stéphane Erler. I'm 35 years old, married to a Taiwanese with who I have 2 adorable kids (3 and 1 years old). I'm from France, but my mom is German, and finished my studies with an MBA in Pennsylvania, USA. And it's because I had fallen in love with this Chinese student from Taiwan that I left Europe for Taiwan over 10 years ago.

A wine amateur in France (Bordeaux reds and Alsace whites mostly), I quickly missed the good quality, low priced French wines in Taiwan. 10 years ago, imported wine in Taiwan was heavily taxed and cost 5 times more than in France. Luckily, I was quickly intrigued by Taiwanese Oolong tea and the Lao Ren Cha brewing method ('old people tea' it was called back then, before it became fashionable again among the younger generation).

But my tea skills seemed to always lack those of my Chinese colleagues and friends. I was never completely satisfied by my tea. So my wife enrolled me in a series of tea classes by Mr. Chih Jung Sien who had just published a book called 'My first gongfu cha book' in Chinese. That was over 3 years ago and I haven't stopped taking classes with Mr Chih. He has published more books in the meantime (Puerh, Tie Kuan Yin, Baozhong, Long Jing, Taiwan's tea street, how to choose a teapot, the world of Chinese tea...) and also maintains a Chinese website called Teaparker with news and various articles about tea.

Thanks to his classes, my knowledge and tea skills have improved dramatically. This in turn has ignited my passion and thirst for tea. I then started to share my experience learning and discovering tea with Teaparker or by myself with this blog. One day, a few readers asked me to sell them the teas I love and that's how I started to sell tea and accessories. It's not yet a full time occupation, but it's one where I put all my heart and passion.

The goal of this blog is to help you better enjoy Chinese tea. How?

1. Knowledge and education are the fondations of real progress in any discipline. So, 'Tea Masters' is a source of education for fans of Chinese tea about the various aspects of the Chinese tea culture. One good place to check is the Tea Master's class room, a page with links to my most important articles.

2. Another way to help you make better tea is to provide you with high standard ingredients (Chinese teas) and the right tools accessories. For this, you can check my Selection. This is a list of the teas I prefer and of accessories I use regularly. All these items come directly from very reputable farmers and makers.

3. The blog allows readers to post comments. Thereby, you can get several opinions about a tea or my advices. This is quite important because it's never easy to define a taste or a fragrance. That's why I encourage my readers (especially those who have purchased from me) to post their comments. And you can use the comment function to ask me questions. If the question is good, I might even write a full article to answer it.

You can see that I like interactivity with my readers a lot. I'm actually even forcing you to contact me at: stephane_erler@yahoo.com if you want to get my selection's price list! You can send me your orders through e-mail and pay me with Paypal (or through a bank if you live in France or in Taiwan) after I've confirmed availability of all items.

Friday, September 15, 2006

These first 2 pictures show the ideal jar for aging Oolong: a big, round shape, glazed surface and rough clay. Here, this huge jar is over 100 years old. I put a regular Yixing teapot next to it to give you a sense of its dimensions. You'll also notice that the foot of the jar is not glazed. And the thick black glaze reminds us of the color variations of Jian Yang bowls from the Sung dynasty (tenmoku). Here, the same chemical process happened during the firing of the jar. For this jar, the color became brown and black, but I've also seen one with purple tones.

The problem with this jar is that I would need to purchase approximately 8 kg of Oolong to fill it completely. If the jar is just half full, then there is too much air and the tea would oxidize too quickly (like an opened, half full bottle of wine). I think I'll eventually buy one, but not before I move into my new appartment (still under construction). Then I can find one dedicated place for it: no bad smells, no direct sunshine, dry. And I'll probably use it to store 2005 Oolong for my 1 year old daughter. Like this she'll also have nice tea to drink when she reaches 18 and later gets married. (And if she doesn't become as much a tea fanatic as me, she'll always know what leaves to bring to please her loving father!) As an alternative to such a big jar, I have found a smaller one (above right). You'll probably recognize my modern Yixing zisha jar. I use it to let the leaves of my 1989 raw wild Jiang Cheng Puerh breathe after flaking. It's a little bit like decanting old wine, if you want. Compressed old puerh should be allowed to rest before being brewed. Such an unglazed jar will retain the fragrances while allowing sufficient air for this purpose.

I also like this Qing dynasty jar with a Chinese lion. Like with most old jars, there is no cover, so I used my Ming dynasty cup! The cup has a crack and shouldn't be used to drink tea, and the colors fit the jar. It's not very airtight, but this is not a problem, because I use it to store my 1988 cooked Gung Ding Cha Zhuan puerh. This way I get a similar result to the Yixing jar.

On the close up of the small old jar, you can see that the bottom is not glazed. A wooden top loosely fits the mouth. I'll need wax to close it more tightly. But the first problem is to get rid of the basement smell. I will put it on my balcony as soon as the coming typhoon passes its way. Fresh air and the sun should do the trick. My potter told me he got several of those in Beijing. They problably date from the 19th Century. I'll ask Teaparker next time I see him.

The question now is what kind of Oolong to put inside. Phyll wonders:

Do ageable oolongs have to be highly or heavily fired? Can the "lighter" fired one be aged long term (10-20-30 years)? I mean lighter by the fact that the tea still has some hint of greeness, but it's quite roasty too already.

With this kind of jar, in Taiwan, the best is too use a medium to heavy fired Oolong if you're shooting long term and if you don't have the equipment, skills and time to roast your tea yourself. Taiwan is quite humid and Oolong would turn bad, rot if it became too humid. So the easiest way to avoid this problem is to start with very dry leaves.

Teaparker mentionned below 6% humidity during his presentation at the Tea expo. This is how much water should still be contained in the tea leaves you purchase. (My educated guess is that most 'green' oolongs that are now so popular have higher levels, which is why they go stale quickly.)

I also asked this humidity question to my source of the 2004 Da Yu Ling Oolong (2650 m) that several of you have or will have the opportunity to taste. (This was Toki's request). And he told me that he usually gets his to 4% approximately. But he also remarked that the humidity level is not necessarily equal to the fire level. You can reach the same humidity with low, medium or high roast. What changes is the time it takes: if you want to keep the tea's 'greeness', then you need a low fire and up to 2 days of roasting.

The level of roasting can then depend on your taste and the complexity of the tea you roast (high mountain Oolong is best roasted with lighter fire). But both Teaparker and this tea roaster told me that good old Oolong has to retain greenness: after several brews the leaves will look lighter and the leaves will unfold softly. Badly roasted Oolong will remain black and its leaves are hard like plastic. So, it's not only OK to age such tea, but this is the kind of tea that has the best potential, because it's transformation will be greatest.

The 20 year old Oolong Teaparker shared last Saturday was a traditionnally fired Dong Ding Oolong and showed these attributes. Teaparker actually had stored it in a lead cannister. Lead is very heavy and keeps tea's freshness very well. Still, the tea had aged very well and was completely sweet and mellow. But, as I reported before, a 8 year old Lishan well fired Oolong aged in a big ceramic jar showed more transformation (it smelled like Cognac!)

So there are many ways to store Oolong. Best is to check and smell the tea every year or 2 to monitor it's transformation. And the other trick is to experiment with different methods, different teas, different containers. That's what I'll do with my new, old jar!

Monday, September 11, 2006

I give very marks to the 2006 Taipei Tea Expo. The venue in the new Taipei sports arena located on Dunhua N Rd and Nanking E Rd gave the Expo a very modern look. At the entrance, you would first see an exhibition about the history and the geography of Taiwan's teas. Then came a row of international tea booths in their original setting: tatami for Japanese tea, a tent for Tibetan tea and lots of celadon for Korean tea. They would make regular performances of their respective tea traditions and let the public taste their tea.

In the middle, you then had the local cultural tea associations and this big stage.

That's where Teaparker made a one hour presentation of how to enjoy tea. (It all starts by being calm and focused).

For the occasion, he shared a 1986 Dong Ding Oolong with the public. Three of his students brewed this tea using tea sets they have designed and made themselves with patchwork:

I helped them serving the tea to the many listeners.

At the end of the presentation, Teaparker had a Q&A session. One visitor asked which old Oolong tea is better, the one that is roasted once or the one that is roasted regularly. Teaparker's answer was very typical: it depends. If an Oolong tea that is roasted just once starts to rot because it has absorbed too much humidity, then it should have been roasted again. On the other hand, if the repeated roasting was too strong, then the leaves may become damaged/dead, which is bad too.

Teaparker also gave advice on how to age Oolong. First, choose a good quality Oolong with a long aftertaste. Use a round shaped, glazed jar that you fill completely with the tea (in order to reduce the amount of air). Then close the top tightly: use wax from a candle to seal it airtight. Finally, open it when you feel like it. Each year that passes will bring changes and you don't need to wait a predetermined time.Of course, the best is to start experimenting with smaller quanitites before moving towards bigger quantities.

Close to the stage there where also some high end tea shops with very elaborate demonstrations like this one:And towards the end of the expo, there were 2 rows of tea and tea related merchants. Some played the game of the 'cultural' concept of this expo and also displayed their own old tea items like this merchant established in 1841:Dehua 'blanc de Chine' teapot and cups on the left (17th century).

There were also a water filtering company, one selling a very sweet bamboo water, and several puerh merchants. Well, I ended up just buying a bar of soap made of tea seed oil. This Taiwanese company seems to have adapted the concept of 'Lush', a western soap company, to Chinese ingredients.

News:"The Taipei Tea Culture Expo 台北茶文化博覽會 will be held at Taipei Arena 台北小巨蛋 from September 6-10, starting at noon on the 6th and 9 a.m. on the other days. The Expo will gather Taiwan's famous teashops and representatives from prominent tea growing areas to exhibit their teas, offering visitors tastes of the many homegrown aromas that exist on the island. Visitors can also make their own tea-related products and learn to pack tea. In conjunction with the event, Taipei's Department of Cultural Affairs is also setting up month-long activities enabling participants to take tea plantation tours in Nangang and Mujha every Saturday in September."

My guess is that most of you won't be able to come to the Expo on such a short notice! Don't cry! Taipei City has set up a website that will let you tour the Expo from your desktop. Just click here. A little warning: many pages are still 'under construction'.

Monday, September 04, 2006

During my last visit to Mr. Wang's tea house, (the 80 years old tea roaster) I asked to purchase his older Shui Xian Oolongs from Wu Yi Mountain (altitude 500 meters).

2 years old (the one I currently have listed in my selection). This Shui Xian is from 1997. I got it from the big box as it's still put aside and not packaged for sale, yet.And this one is 14 years old, from 1992. It's the oldest Shui Xian he has for sale as his 'Cha Wang', king of tea, the commonly used superlative.

This is how they look when brewed. The youngest is on the left and the oldest on the right.What's striking from the pictures (and it's the same in reality), is that you can't see any meanigful difference of age with the dry leaves or with the tea color. Why? Because even the young Shui Xian is heavily roasted: 7-8 hours at 140 degrees Celcius. This roasting gives it this charcoal look and dark red color. But if you can't see the differences, can you at least smell and taste them? The answer is yes. And that's where it becomes interesting to drink these 3 Wu Yi Shui Xian from the same Taiwanese roaster. This is a good study of how traditional Oolong (well fermented at 30-40%) and then even more strongly roasted will evolve over time.

The younger Shui Xian displays the usual roasting characteristics: heavier fragrances like black chocolate, coffee, Macadamia nuts. The charcoal smell is strong in the pot of wet leaves, but doesn't impact the tea very much. The mouthfeel is full body, with bitterness turning mellow.

The 9 years old Shui Xian shows additional complexity and develops more old wood, forest smells. The roasting seemed lightest here. Mr. Wang told me that they roast the Shui Xian every year, but I guess that it must be lighter roasting once it has reached a certain level.

The 14 years old Shui Xian had yet another change in fragrance: this one actually reminded me of some Chinese wines like Maotai. It's not as obvious as from the old LiShan Oolong jar that smelled like Cognac (which I reported a few weeks ago), but the same postfermentation processes are at work here. And the taste continued to feel richer and softer than the young Shui Xian.

Roasted Oolongs are teas from the past. Maybe they'll soon become endangered species if the general public continues to drive the demand for always lighter, greener and higher altitude Oolongs. These modern Oolongs are often just Mao Cha, unfinished tea. In the past, the city tea merchants would buy Mao Cha from the farmers and add their own roasting recipe. This is what Mr. Wang is still doing. With modern Oolong, merchants and buyers can forego this step, but this comes at the price of freshness. Such 'greener' Oolong will only taste great and fresh for a limited time. Consumers are then chasing spring and winter harvests and pay extra for fast shipping.

Traditional roasted Oolong, on the hand, has much more staying power. The older it gets, the better it may actually taste if you know how to store it. It seems like there are 2 trends or even 2 philosophies:- green oolong could represent our quest for 'youth', modern consumerism. It's the part of us that refuses to age, that wants the latest car or the latest fashion. - traditional oolong then would stand for the value of 'maturity'. The inner value is more important. Looks are deceptive (as for these teas that all look alike). More important is what's been nurtured inside, what it had to endure and go through.

Maybe it's also why it's easier to fall in love with young and sexy Oolong, but that it takes a while to acquire the taste for traditional Oolong!... Since such heavily roasted older Shui Xians are less known by the current tea public, I propose to give you the opportunity to discover them as a small set, like I did. This sampler set would include approximately 30 grams (more or less 1 ounce) of each the 2 years, 9 years and 14 years old Shui Xian. Total price: 18 USD (14,5 Euros), without transportation for 90 grams.